The Economist - USA (2020-03-28)

(Antfer) #1

74 Books & arts The EconomistMarch 28th 2020


A


fterproducingthreerespectable
thrillers,theCanadianauthorEmily
StJohnMandelraisedherprofilewith
herboldlyinventivefourthnovel.“Sta-
tionEleven”(2014)tellsofa flupandemic
thatdevastatestheEarth’spopulation,
andfollowsa groupoftravellingShake-
speareanactorswhoperformforthe
survivors 20 yearslater.Thenarrative’s
before-and-afterstructurebeautifully
balancesthelifeanddeathofa single
individualagainstthefateofcivilisation.
Beyonditsgrimdystopia,thestoryhints
ata bravenewworldfoundedonhope
andhumanity.
Today,“StationEleven”isastimelyas
a novelcanbe.MsMandel’snewbook,
“TheGlassHotel”,partlyrevolvesaround
anothercatastrophe,onlythisoneis
financialandhopeismoreelusive.
Swappingthepost-apocalypticfuturefor
therecentpast,andchartingtheche-
queredfatesofa widecastofcharacters,
shespinsa beguilingtaleaboutskewed
morals,recklesslivesandnecessary
meansofescape.
ThemainprotagonistisVincent,a
young(female)bartenderata swishhotel
onVancouverIslandwhohada tragic
childhood.Onenighta viciousanony-
mousmessageisscrawledonthebuild-
ing:“Whydon’tyouswallowbroken
glass.”Oneoftheguests,a shipping
executivenamedLeonPrevant,isdis-
turbedbythegraffiti.Vincentherselfis

shockedandcontemplatesfleeing,even
disappearing.Instead,afterserving
drinkstothehotel’sowner,Jonathan
Alkaitis,sheseizesanopportunityand
elopeswithhimtoNewYork.
Theresheadjuststohernewroleasa
trophywifein“thekingdomofmoney”.
Alas,allthatglittersturnsouttohave
beenfraudulentlyacquired.Alkaitisis
runninga multibillion-dollarPonzi
schemereminiscentofBernieMadoff’s;
itscollapsewipesoutfortunesandforces
Vincenttostartafresh,thistimeasa
cookona containership.Butwhileatsea
shedisappearsoverboard.Leon,oneof
manyinvestorsruinedbyAlkaitis,is
chargedwithsolvingthemystery.Did
Vincentfallorwasshepushed?Andhas
shewasheduponanothershorereadyto
reinventherselfagain?
“TheGlassHotel”isa sprawling,
immersivebook.Inplacesit isdisori-
entating,asthenarrativechopsbetween
timelinesandperspectives.Minorchar-
acters,suchasVincent’shalf-brother,
driftinandout.Andyetthenovel’sscope
andbrimmingvitalityarealsoits
strengths.Vincent’sencounterswiththe
plutocracyarememorablyrealised;so
areAlkaitis’sconcoctionofa “counter-
life”inhisprisoncellandhisemployees’
strugglestosavetheirskins.
Intheend,allthestoriesaredrawn
togetherbya singlequestion:canyou
everescapewhatyouhavedoneinthe
past,andwhathasbeendonetoyou?
“Therearesomanywaystohaunta
person,”theauthorwrites,“ora life.”

Woman overboard


Disappearing acts

The Glass Hotel.By Emily St John Mandel.
Knopf; 320 pages; $26.95. Picador; £14.99

W


henprofessorVladimirPersikov’s
wife runs off with an opera singer,
she leaves him a note. “An unbearable
shudder of revulsion is aroused in me by
your frogs,” she tells him. In “The Fatal
Eggs”, a little-known novella by Mikhail
Bulgakov, a pestilence spawned by the pro-
fessor’s zoological research threatens not
just his marriage, but civilisation itself.
The scourge in the story—published in
1925 and set three years later—is not a dis-
ease, exactly. In their imagination of epi-
demics, novels such as Mary Shelley’s “The
Last Man”, “The Plague” by Albert Camus or
José Saramago’s haunting “Blindness”
might seem more apposite in the time of
covid-19. Nor is this biting tale Bulgakov’s
finest work (that is his satirical fantasia,
“The Master and Margarita”). But as a para-
ble of bureaucratic bungling, avoidable di-
saster and drastic countermeasures, it is
horribly relevant.
In his laboratory in Moscow, Persikov
discovers a “ray of life” that makes amoe-
bae and tadpoles reproduce at speed.
Thrilled, he orders extra kit from Germany
and exotic eggs from across the Atlantic
(like the virus, this is a globalised affair).
Foreign powers covet the new technology,
but the Soviet state requisitions it to help
kick-start poultry production. The apparat-
chik in charge of the state farm, Alexander
Faight, was once a flautist in Odessa; he is
carrying his instrument when he encoun-
ters a giant serpent, which he tries to pacify
with a waltz from “Eugene Onegin”. He

fails, and the beast eats his wife.
The Russian author takes digs at the
church, heedless carousers in the streets,
blinkered scientists—and, naturally, at the
Bolsheviks. But his depiction of blasé, in-
competent officialdom resonates across
the ages and all forms of government.
“Honest to God, it’ll work out,” Faight says
blithely of the poultry plan, like a president
recommending an unproven drug. Disas-
ter ensues because the authorities botch
their deliveries, sending the hens’ eggs
meant for the farm to Persikov, and his ex-
otic specimens to the farm. Then, after the
creatures hatch, the first, all-too familiar
response is disbelief and denial. Faight
stammers a report to two security agents;
one thinks he is hallucinating, the other
that a circus animal might have escaped. A
newspaper editor dismisses an urgent tele-
gram as a drunkard’s raving.

Before long, though, everyone goes ber-
serk. Martial law is declared in Moscow
amid a flood of refugees. Like quarantined
Europeans applauding ambulances from
their balconies, cowering citizens take to
the pavements to salute the cavalrymen on
their way to interspecies battle, and the
marching gas squadrons “with breathing
tubes over their shoulders and with cylin-
ders on straps behind their backs”. Artillery
units bombard forests; aeroplanes spray
poison. Civilian casualties mount. And,
following a perennial instinct, vigilantes
hunt for someone to blame.
In the end, the weather intervenes, as
some hope it might today. An unseason-
able summer frost kills the serpents and
freezes the eggs, and a year after the trouble
arose, it is all over. Moscow, Bulgakov
writes encouragingly, “again began to
dance, to burn and to spin with lights”. 7

Disaster fiction

The yolk of fate


The Fatal Eggs.By Mikhail Bulgakov.
Translated by Hugh Aplin.Hesperus Press;
112 pages; £6.99
Free download pdf